A study published in Nature Communications indicates that rural populations were undercounted by 53-84% from 1975 to 2010, suggesting that the global population could be billions higher than the current UN estimate of 8.2 billion. Significant discrepancies were identified in countries such as China, Brazil, Australia, Poland, and Colombia.
This undercounting is crucial, as over 40% of the world's population resides in rural areas. It has significant implications for resource allocation and policy decisions, potentially leading to inadequate representation of rural residents' needs on a global scale.